Disney CEO Confirms Whether Kathleen Kennedy Will Be Fired From Lucasfilm
Kathleen Kennedy has been on the hot seat for LucasFilm over the short-term and now we know whether or not she's been fired
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Kathleen Kennedy has an incredibly powerful position, heading up LucasFilm and having basically the final say on everything that will come onto the big screen when it comes to the Star Wars universe. But even with such a position of power can come some questioning over whether that gig is safe going forward. Such is the nature of the Hollywood beast and lately, Kennedy’s grip on the studio has appeared tenuous at best. But apparently, for all the speculation about her job security, she is safe for now. The Disney CEO said as much on an investor’s call and confirmed that Kennedy wouldn’t be going anywhere.
The news about Kathleen Kennedy keeping her gig at LucasFilm for the foreseeable future came from Disney chief Bob Chapek. He had this to say regarding Kennedy and whether she was still the choice to head up this arm of the studio in the making of future Star Wars films and other entities:
“We’ve been absolutely thrilled that we can have the kind of talent like Kathy Kennedy to direct Lucasfilm… We look forward to having Kathleen Kennedy running the Lucasfilm organization for many years to come.”
Look, this is Hollywood after all and the fickle nature of Tinseltown typically means your job is safe right up to the moment it’s not. Then it’s all over. But that doesn’t appear to be the case with Kathleen Kennedy for now and she seems entrenched in the position going forward. The reason her job had been called into question recently though stemmed from rumors that folks at Disney were less than pleased with the performance and production around the most recent Star Wars trilogy which culminated with The Rise of Skywalker. Those films had some starts and stops with the story and, at times, an incohesive narrative running throughout. It called into question her vision around the franchise.
Kathleen Kennedy originally stepped into the role of co-chair of LucasFilm back in 2012 and ascended to President of the company when Disney purchased it later that year. She was the top dog when they released the third trilogy of movies over the next few years. There had been speculation that her job was in jeopardy last year when her original contract ran out. Also, it was rumored that she was at odds with Jon Favreau and his vision with the Disney+ Star Wars series starting with The Mandalorian. The latter apparently didn’t like the direction of the final trilogy films and was looking to retcon the story in his own franchise shows coming out in the next few years.
But apparently, Kathleen Kennedy and Jon Favreau, even if they are at odds, are mutually exclusive entities within the Disney empire. Kennedy will remain in her position at the top of LucasFilm for the time being. And they are set to come out with a number of highly-anticipated productions over the next half-decade or so. There’s another Indiana Jones movie coming down the pike and a bunch of Star Wars films in the hopper like Rogue Squadron as well as untitled flicks from Kevin Feige, Taika Waititi, and Rian Johnson as well. So big things are planned and Kennedy will be at the helm for all of them.
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